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SOME FAVORITE POEMS.
I am fond of poetry, and just here I want to give you some little poems, most of which I learned in early life; I repeat them often and would like to pass them on to the reader. It may be that they will cheer you as they have me. I want you, also, to know that it is Bible promises and the old-time hymns that sister and I learned by heart in my childhood home that have been my greatest source of encouragement and hope.
"Out upon the haughty calf, I say
Who turns his grumbling head away,
And quarrels with his feed of hay
Because it is not clover.
Give to me the happy mind
That will ever seek and ever find,
Something good and something kind
All this wide world over."
"Don't look for the faults as you go through life,
And even when you find them
It is wise and kind, to be somewhat blind,
And look for the virtues behind them."
"Never look sad, there's nothing so bad
As getting familiar with sorrow;
Treat him to-day in a chivalrous way,
And he will seek other quarters to-morrow."
"Let each day carry away
Its own little burden of sorrow,
Or you may miss one-half of the bliss
That comes in the lap of to-morrow."
"I've built a firm, strong fence of trust,
All around to-day;
I fill the space with loving work
And within it stay.
I look not through the sheltering bars,
Anxious for tomorrow
God does help whatever comes,
Be it joy or sorrow."
I changed the above by saying, I have done, what the author told me to do.
"The heart that trusts forever sings,
And feels as light as if it had wings,
A well of joy within it springs,
Come, good or ill, it is God's will."
A human soul exalted or depressed,
By aught this world can give or take;
Resembles ocean into fury wrought,
To waft a feather, or to drown a fly."
THE CHILD ON THE JUDGMENT SEAT.
"Where hast been toiling all day, sweet heart,
That thy brow is burdened and sad;
The Master's work may make weary feet,
But it leaves the spirit glad.
"No pleasant garden toil were mine,
I sat on the judgment seat
Where the Master sits at eve and calls
The children around His feet.
"But how fared thy garden plot, sweet heart
Whilst thou sat on the judgment seat;
Who watered thy roses and trained thy vines,
And kept them from careless feet?
"Nay, that is saddest of all to me,
That is saddest of all!
My vines are trailing, my roses are parched,
My lilies droop and fall.
"Go to thy garden plot, sweet heart;
Go back till the evening falls;
And bind thy lilies and train thy vines,
Till for thee the Master calls
"Go make thy garden fair as thou canst,
Thou workest never alone,
Perchance he whose plot is next to thine
Will see it and mend his own.
"And the next may copy his, sweet heart
Till all grows fair and sweet,
And when the Master comes at eve,
Happy faces His coming will greet."
"Stand like an anvil,
When the strokes of stalwart men
Fall thick and fast.
Thine but the calm and still rebound
Of a great heart that cannot fear.
Stand like an anvil;
Noise and strife are born of earth
And die with time.
The soul like God, its source
Is solemn, still, serene, sublime."
"Be thou the first true merit to defend
His praise is lost who waits till all commend."
"Is thy cruise of comfort failing?
Rise and share it with another
And through all the years of famine
It will serve thee and thy brother.
Scanty fare for one
Makes ample feast for two."
PSALM OF LIFE.
"Life is real, life is earnest,
And the grave is not its goal.
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul."
"Tis better, said a voice within
To bear the Christian's cross
Than sell this fleeting world for gold,
Which death shall prove but dross.
"Far better when yon shriveled skies
Are like a banner furled,
To share in Christ's reproach than gain
The glory of the world."
"Right is right since God is God
And right the day will win,
To doubt, would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin."
WHAT TO DO.
"If the world seems cold to you,
Kindle fires to warm it!
Let their comfort hide from view
Winters that deform it.
Hearts as frozen as your own
To that radiance gather;
You will soon forget to moan,
'Ah, the cheerless weather!'
"If the world's a wilderness,
Go build houses in it!
Will it help your loneliness
On the winds to din it?
Raise a hut, however slight;
Weeds and brambles smother;
And to roof and meal invite
Some forlorner brother.
"If the world's a vale of tears,
Smile till rainbows span it!
Breathe the love that life endears,
Clear from clouds to fan it.
Of your gladness lend a gleam
Unto souls that shiver;
Show them how dark Sorrow's stream
Blends with Hope's bright river."
?Lucy Larcom.
"Seldom can a heart be lonely
If it seeks a lonelier still,
Self forgetting,
Emptier cups with love to fill."
"Speak not harshly?much of care
Every human heart must bear;
Enough of shadows darkly lie
Veiled within the sunniest eye.
By thy Childhood's gushing tears,
By thy griefs of after years;
By the anguish thou dost know,
Add not to another's woe.
Speak not harshly?much of sin
Dwelleth every heart within;
In its closely-covered cells,
Many a wayward passion dwells,
By the many hours misspent,
By thy gifts to errors lent,
By the wrong thou didst not shun
By the good thou hast not done,
With a lenient spirit scan
The errors of thy fellow man."
I praise God for everything because of Rom. 8:28.
"I praise Him for both smile and frown,
And for the gain and loss
I praise Him for the future crown,
And for the present Cross.
I praise Him for the storm cloud
That drove me trembling to His breast,
And for this strange?this settled peace?
Which nothing can destroy."
Repeating these sonnets and many others stored in my memory has been like music to my soul. The Spirit brought them to my remembrance just when I needed the lesson they taught.
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